oh i'm not saying he didn't hit it on something - i believe he did... just not to the degree that we usually see things blow out, with stuff splintering or bubbling up.

either way it will be easy to fix as long as you've got the moisture out of it. so yea, come to think of it given how easy that would be to make look like it never happened they would probably just repair it rather than send you a new board. but you never know..

do not ride it like it is now and then expect them to honor it tho. if you get enough water in there it will rot the core and/or be impossible to get all the moisture out.

seeing that you're in AUS makes me feel like you should just fix it yourself or take it to a local pro repair shop (surf shop maybe) and pay no more than like $40 for them to make it look perfect again. unless you have a board to ride in the meantime it isn't worth sending it all the way back to NS in the states unless you're getting a new board for it and/or NS is covering the shipping $$... IMHO